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Is year round schooling better than traditional
The benefits of year-round education
Is year round schooling better than traditional
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Imagine going to school and not having a summer break. Year-round schooling allows students to go to school from six to nine weeks in a row followed by a two-to-four- week vacation. This way of schooling has been a controversial topic among parents and teachers worldwide. Schools should not have year-round schooling and should continue with the traditional schooling because of the absence of summer break, there is no academic benefit, and it is an inconvenience.
With year-round schooling comes no summer break. The article “Year Round School Advantages and Disadvantages” written by OccupyTheory in 2014 states, “Year-round school schedules will prevent high school students to get part time jobs or summer jobs since there wouldn’t be a long vacation”
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The article “The Impact of Year-Round Schooling on Academic Achievement” written by Steven McMullen and Kathryn E. Rouse in 2012 states, “According to one study, the research finds that a year-round calendar doesn't benefit the average student. Because these schools offer more breaks to make up for being in school year-round, students end up learning the same amount of material. Furthermore, the research found it isn't the amount of time that a student is in school, but rather the amount of learning that takes place” (McMullen & Rouse, 2012). The amount of time students are in school stays the same, the amount of material the students cover stays the same, and the amount of learning stays the same. This would lead to no academic benefit for the students to be in class year round. The students academics are not dependent on the time they are in school, it is how much they learn. The academics of the same student in both types of schooling would be the same. According to the article “Year-Round Schools: In Brief” written by Rebecca R. Skinner, a specialist in education policy for the Congressional Research Service, in 2014, “The research on the extent to which year-round schools affect student achievement has generally been found to be inconclusive and lacking in methodological rigor. There is some consensus that year-round schooling has no effect or a small positive effect on student performance” …show more content…
According to Patricia McCracken, who grew up attending a year-round school, in the article “The Pros and Cons of Year-Round Schools” written in 2015 by Scholastic, “It was really hard to get involved in the work because as soon as you geared up, you had to gear back down again” (Scholastic, 2015). The frequent breaks are disruptive to the motivation and learning students have. Once students start the six to nine week period of school, they feel it is over too quick and they do not have time to get back into the swing of things. The time allotted for school is too short to allow students to fully learn a concept or unit. When the unit may be coming to an end with a test in sight the students could have a break right before the test, which causes them to forget information that will be crucial to know for the test. There is no longer a exact date that all work must be finished, as the last day of school would be in a traditional school, which means the concepts must be fit within the breaks and could be rushed through in order to fit it in. Scholastic also writes that McCracken, whose mother taught at a traditional school said, “It meant my sister and I were basically latchkey kids for two or three years because it was impossible to find a babysitter for two weeks every six weeks” (Scholastic, 2015). With a year-round schedule, finding appropriate childcare can be a problem as well.
First, the pros of year round schooling can include; effects on absence and burnout rates, effects on budget, more frequent breaks, and also a big effect on academic achievement. The way that year round schooling works to reduce burnout and also reduce absences is that by having more frequent breaks; students are less likely to want to skip class. This is definitely noticeable after spring break where most schools don’t have any days off until the end of the year that is usually more than 2 months straight. In other words the “April, May, June stretch”. Year round schooling will also help students with their academics as well because with the way the schedule is set up, students do not ha...
Paul von Hippel, an author of study and research statistician in Sociology at The Ohio State University, says, “We found that students in year-round schools learn more during the summer, when others are on vacation, but they seem to learn less than other children during the rest of the year” (Grabmeier). Both schedules, year and traditional, have 180 days in their school year, the difference in scheduling is that the year-round schools have many short breaks throughout the school year, while the traditional gets a long summer break and a few breaks during the
Although, year round school wouldn’t be just a bad thing. For example, shorter summer breaks may decrease the amount of learning students lose. It can also mean that students are less likely to have summer learning loss. Also, students test scores lower after summer break. Therefore, some people get free or reduced meals but in the summer they wouldn’t get that. Shorter breaks would cause a hard time to find childcare and to pay childcare.
Year round schooling is becoming increasingly popular in the United States, and has shown positive academic benefits for students enrolled in year round schools. Many countries implement year round schooling, and academic ability of their students greatly surpasses those of the United States. Year round schooling, as well as increase in school days should be implemented in schools nationwide in the United States. The need for long summer vacations is non-existent, as society has become industrialized. Implementing year-round schooling, and increasing the number of school days will allow the United States to invest more time into education in order to grow and build academic success.
In conclusion, the advantages of year-round schooling are beneficial to all. If all schools did change to year round schooling, I believe we would be able to teach all the students without having to reteach skills from previous years, it could be done during intersessions. Year-round schooling benefits both the teachers and students. Teachers are able to reflect on their teachings and adjust in time before the next session would begin. The students would feel positive about themselves in school. With this change, we may even be able to accomplish No Child Left Behind.
Throughout time education has been considered a process that every so often must be improved. The education quality in the U.S. has declined over the years and people have been looking for a way to make improvements. A more recent proposal has been to go from a traditional nine-month schedule to an all year program. Supporters of year round school claim it gives the student a better education. However, the prospect of year round school is not beneficial to the taxpayers pocket, to the education a student receives, or to the people involved with the district.
Year round schooling sounds rigorous, but in fact it is just a change in schedule. The traditional school year was made with farming families in mind when the families needed their children to help with the crops in the summer. That is why the traditional school year has a three month period where kids are not in school over the summer. In today’s modern world, that does not make any sense because now a days, big huge machines take care of the farms and crops. Also, our economy does not depend on the crops and farms like it did back in the 20th century. The year round school year would still require the same amount of school days as the traditional school year, which is 180 days in the classroom. But instead of a prolonged summer break, it would have a 45-15 plan. 45 days in school and 15 days out of it, which translates to nine weeks in school and three weeks off. The breaks would include three weeks off in fall, winter, spring, and summer. These breaks would be in nine week intervals.
For years, parents and educators have debated the advantages and disadvantages of the traditional school calendar, which has long summer vacations for all students.The longer you are away from school, the more you lose what you learned in the previous year. Studies have shown that children who know English as a second language benefit the most from year-round education because during the long summer break, they may not hear English for several months. Long summer breaks is a problem for traditional schools and the solution is to substitute traditional schools for year-round schools.
Have you ever felt stuck? Wherever you are, it’s the absolute last place you want to be. In the book Into the Wild, Chris McCandless feels stuck just like the average everyday person may feel. Chris finds his escape plan to the situation and feels he will free himself by going off to the wild. I agree with the author that Chris McCandless wasn’t a crazy person, a sociopath, or an outcast because he got along with many people very well, but he did seem somewhat incompetent, even though he survived for quite some time.
Every summer children lose valuable information. When school is back in session, students spend months trying to recall everything that was forgotten over those few weeks off. The arrangement of days in the academic year does play a role on how students perform in school, but not so much on the expenses. Therefore, schools should implement Year-Round education because it more affordable and is better for the children in the long run.
The phrase “year-round” scares students and parents alike. Some argue that students attending school year-round will get so burnt out that the new schedule would be counterproductive. However, the term “year-round” is misleading. Students would not go to school non-stop twelve months out of the year. Instead, students would attend in blocks separated by short but frequent breaks (Hapka). The National Education Association gives insight to the block system:
Although year-round school is not something that most Americans are used to, it is much more beneficial than the original nine-month schooling. Nine-month schooling has been around for a very long time, but it is also out dated. Nine-month schooling was a way to help farmers keep their children at home for extra help during the summer months. Now, more and more people are living in town, and farmers have advanced equipment. Year-round school is a great way to give students and teachers more frequent breaks throughout the school year so they do not get burnt out. It will also shorten the review time each year, and allow teachers to teach more throughout the school year. The multi-tracking system allows
Long summer vacations have always been something that students look forward to towards the end of the school year. Taking this away would do nothing but make students less interested and less motivated to do their best to finish the year. Changing the traditional school calendar to year-round would not help school children as much as everyone tries to prove. Young children and teens need more time to do fun things outside of school. Shorter summer breaks can disrupt activities that are usually only done during the summer, such as vacations, family and friend bonding, clubs, etc (Opheim).
Those in support of the year-round school year belive that summer vacation is a time period of wasted time that could be used for learning. They believe that through the three months, students forget all of the information that they learned in the previous year. They also believe that there are many extracurricular opportunities that are missed during summer. Although this may appear to be a good idea, a theory like this will not end well.
The first reason why year round schooling wouldn’t be a good idea is because of focusing for long periods of times for some students. First of all, many kids with disabilities or elementary school would have a hard time focusing that long of a time without their traditional three month summer break. Second, the more breaks students have might make it harder to focus before and after breaks. Before breaks many kids would be excited to